Rory McIlroy shot a 66 to secure the second-round lead at the Scottish Open on Friday, holding off England’s Tyrrell Hatton to enter the weekend at The Renaissance Club in North Berwick, Scotland, alone in first place.
“I hit the ball really well tee-to-green. Gave myself a ton of looks,” McIlroy said. “Honestly it felt like 4-under was probably the worst I could have shot out there.”
McIlroy, who shot 64 in the opening round, is 10-under for the tournament and riding a narrow margin as more typical links golf weather is due to arrive on Saturday with rain and gusty winds in the forecast. Tee times were moved up for the third round Saturday.
This is the first time McIlroy scored 66 or better in each of the first two rounds since winning the Open Championship in 2014 (66-66). He’s five-for-10 when carrying the 36-hole lead to a tournament title in his career.
“I know that I’m playing well enough tee-to-green to give myself some looks and hang in there,” McIlroy said. “So I’m pretty confident going into the next two days no matter what the weather throws at us.”
Tom Kim backed his opening-round 66 with a 65. Kim and first-round leader Ben An share second place with Hatton at 9-under.
“I like this place. I obviously had good memories last year,” said the 21-year-old Kim, who finished third in the event last year but had missed the cut in three of his past five events coming into Thursday’s round. “After the season ended last year, I was really looking forward to coming back. This course kind of suits my eye. The weather needs to cooperate a bit but great feels and great momentum last year, and just trying to keep it up.”
Hatton missed tying the course record by one with a 62 and nine total birdies with one bogey. He has hit 28 of 36 greens in regulation through the first two rounds.
“I’ve generally always putted well on links courses,” Hatton said, noting he’s keeping a close eye on the forecast. “And like every single tournament we play, you have to putt well to give yourself a chance to win on Sunday. So yeah, let’s hope the putts keep dropping.”
An took the course in the afternoon as conditions deteriorated and was even par (70) in the second round with three pars and three bogeys, nine strokes more than he needed Thursday. He left himself a 9-foot putt for birdie and a share of the lead at the last, but settled for par.
A lower score was there for McIlroy. He missed a short, uphill birdie putt at 16, carded his first bogey of the round at 17 and then drove to the thick right rough on 18 before scrambling to save par and a one-shot lead.
World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler ended his round 19 spots higher on the leaderboard with a 65 featuring 13 pars and five birdies to sit three back of McIlroy. Scheffler attributed the low round to soft greens following overnight rain. He’s tied with Padraig Harrington and 22-year-old Nicolai Hojgaard of Denmark.
American Sam Burns is 8-under and tied with countryman Brian Harman through 36 holes. Burns and Harman put up 65s in the second round.
Despite two bogeys, nobody made up more ground in the second round than Hojgaard, whose round of 63 included three birdies and an eagle on the back nine, getting him to 7-under for the tournament.
“Obviously the course is gettable out there. It’s quite soft,” Hojgaard said. “We had two different wind directions these two days, so the course is playing different. But it seems like the early group out today found a way around with good scores.”
–Field Level Media